hey, ppls. my mom recently was given a common pleco that outgrew the 55 gallon tank of a friend of hers. right now he is in my moms 75g tank, with her oscar, ozzy. the pleco, brownie, is about 19" right now. now, both of us know thats too small for them both, but no fish store in town will take him, and my mom vowed to care for it. how big a tank are we talking for the both of them, here? 150 gallons?
150 will be great. The 125 suggested above is too small becuase it's only 18" front to back, and the pleco is already 19", and would have a hard time turning around in that tank, expescially when it starts growing.
Anything 120g or larger would need reinforcing of the floor, if the tank is going on a first floor (or second, or third, or fourth...) and the bulder didn't go over kill on the flooring when he/she was bulding the house.
no no no... i have been doin research for some time now and there is no chance that you will need to support the floor... residential homes in the us use a strict formula to construct our homes... Your floor(less than 50yrs old)can hold at LEAST 40 pounds per square foot... for example i have a 150g that is 4 ft L X 2 ft W X 31 in D... That gives you a base of about 1150 square inches... so the tank we say is about 200lb. gravel is 150lb and water is 8.5lb per gal so about 1275lb in water... total after stand fish and accessories is about 1700lbs... So if you have 1700lbs in 1152 square inches... that is about 1.5lbs per square inch... multiply that by 12 and you got square feet... So thats well under 20lbs per square foot... So support if you must but its a waste for anything under 200gal... Do your own research if im not believable??? The tank will be setting across at least 4 of your floor joists...
